Where is pdf info outiside of artboards?

[micahg67484891]

Hi guys,

I did something stupid. I was working in an .ai file on multiple artboards. I saved as a pdf to see what it looked like. Then I went back to working in it and made changes on the outside of the artboards and hit save and close without realizing it was still in .pdf and not in .ai

My question is: Is there a way to get that text back that I had outside of the artboards?

When I open the the pdf it only opens each individual page and doesnt have any of the info that was on the outside of the artboards.

Thank you in advance!

[Omar.Fathy]

The problem is if you remove the disabled Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities in the Save PDF option dialog box:

If you choose it, you can find your artwork that is outside your artboard. But if you disabled it unfortunately you can't get the missed data outside the artboard

[micahg67484891]

Thank you for responding to me! I did indeed preserve editing capabilities, but opening the pdf back into illustrator doesnt show the work I did outside of of the artboard. So I feel the information is still in the file I just dont know how to access it.

[Monika Gause]

Any warning when you open the file?

Are you opening it in the same Illustrator version it has been created in?

Are you sure you didn't save a PDF/X of some sort?

The file might also be corrupted.

Where did you save it?

From where do you open it?

Did you send it via e-mail?

[micahg67484891]

No warnings.

Opening it in the same Illustrator CC as created in

Saved it to the desktop

File is not corrupted.

I can even see it in Illustrator's recent work. The RED is the artboards and the TEAL is the info I need outside of the artboards. But when each page is opened in Illustrator there is no work outside of the artboards. (Don't mind the file tittle its a pun on flat design and earth)

To my understanding, PDFs only save the work that is on the artboards. Anything else around it is lost.

I'm hoping I can be proved wrong though.

[Monika Gause]

This is how Illustrator saves files:

How Illustrator saves files - YouTube

When files get corrupted, the AI content might get affected. So only the PDF content is lost.

You might want to consider a backup strategy. It looks like your file just got lost.

What is inside the layers panel? Lots of clipping masks?

The preview icon is just a bitmap that Windows saves.

[micahg67484891]

Looking at your Youtube video, this is how I can relate what I did:

I basically saved a pdf of the zebra on the outside of the artboard. And I want to get the zebra back, but when I open the file I only get what was on the artboard. 

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Yes.

What's outside the artboard only gets saved in the AI part of the file. Not in the PDF part.

But in your case the AI part is lost. Either you never saved it or the file got corrupted.

[micahg67484891]

Thank you. That's all I wanted to reaffirm. That I can't get it back.

[Masoud5FAF]

Hi

I had this problem too and my work is gone.

Isn't this an illustrator bug?
Why not give a warning when saving?

I use 2018 version. Has this problem been fixed in newer versions?